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Grass-roots movements key to ending world’s toilet problem

Grass-roots movements key to ending world’s toilet problem: UNICEF

World Toilet Day observed

ADDIS ABABA/ NEW YORK, 19 November 2013 – Toilets are still out of reach for more than one-third of the global population, with devastating consequences to the health and development of children, UNICEF said on World Toilet Day.

However, the key to bridging the gap lies within communities themselves, the organization emphasized.

Since 1990 almost 1.9 billion people gained access to improved sanitation, but in 2011 the total without access was still 36 per cent of the global population, or approximately 2.5 billion people.

“Access to toilets remains the unmentionable, shameful secret for even some very prosperous countries,” said Sanjay Wijesekera, the global head of UNICEF’s Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) programmes. “But its invisibility doesn’t make it harmless; in fact it is quite the reverse. Lack of access to toilets is quite literally killing children, making adults sick, and slowing progress – day after day after day.”

According to figures released by UNICEF earlier this year, lack to access to safe water, sanitation and hygiene is a leading cause of deaths from diarrhoea in children under five, amounting to approximately 1,400 children dying each day.

In Ethiopia, there has been a great progress in the sanitation and hygiene sector during the past five years, much of it achieved through the Government’s Health Extension Programme and the subsequent introduction and spread of the Community Led Total Sanitation and Hygiene (CLTSH) approach.

According to the Joint Monitoring Programme The WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP) for Water Supply and Sanitation is the official United Nations mechanism tasked with monitoring progress towards the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) relating to drinking-water and sanitation (JMP) 2012 update, the proportion of the population having access to improved and unimproved sanitation facilities stands at 54 per cent (21 per cent improved and 33 per cent unimproved). Furthermore, access to sanitation varies considerably among the regions in Ethiopia, with some reporting access in excess of 70 per cent, and others less than 10 per cent mainly pastoralist areas.

“Open defecation is still one of the biggest concerns in Ethiopia as 38 million people still defecate in the open.” said Samuel Godfrey, Chief of Water Sanitation and Hygiene in UNICEF Ethiopia.

“If this needs to be tackled, community participation and leadership play a crucial role besides scaling up of interventions and availability of sustained financing." he added.

UNICEF’s has spearheaded a social change movement that that has led more than 25 million people to end the practice of open defecation and now use toilets. The Community Approaches to Total Sanitation (CATS) programme, encourages communities to take the lead and identify their own measures to end open defecation, and has been achieving results at scale. At the last count, over 50 countries have implemented CATS and many governments have mainstreamed a similar approach into their national policy.

The CATS approach works precisely because it depends on people taking their own decisions, and coming up with their own solutions. As more governments and communities apply the method to eliminate open defecation and scale up access to toilets, many more people stand to benefit, especially from a reduction in WASH related diseases.

As well as its on-going global “No access” campaign at www.unicef.org/toilets4all, UNICEF is promoting major pushes around the world on World Toilet Day, to bring awareness to the dangers of open defecation and the problem of lack of access to improved sanitation.

In India, where in 2011 approximately 65 per cent of the population did not have access to improved sanitation, and over 620 million people defecated in the open, UNICEF India is rolling out Poo2loo, an on-line campaign addressing the issue of open defecation in the country. Individuals can take the pledge for a ‘poo free country’ at http://www.poo2loo.com/; join on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/poo2loo and follow the campaign updates on Twitter at https://twitter.com/poo2loo.

In Mali, on World Toilet Day, UNICEF is launching a Sanitation Marketing Project in partnership with PSI-Mali and the National Directorate of Sanitation.

In Eritrea, there will be celebrations of certifications of Open Defecation Free communities throughout the country.

“Every action which spurs people to change their way of dealing with defecation brings us closer towards the goal of sanitation for all,” said Wijesekera. “It is not easy, but it is certainly doable, and moreover, it is absolutely indispensable if we are expecting to live healthy lives in the 21st century.”

NOTE TO EDITORS:

· World Toilet Day, long observed on November 19, was made an official United Nations Day by a UN General Assembly resolution in 2013.

· TheMillennium Development Goal target is to reduce the proportion of the global population without access to improved sanitation, from 51 per cent in 1990 to 25 per cent by 2015. Although since 1990 almost 1.9 billion people gained access to improved sanitation, in 2011 the total with access was still only 64 per cent of the global population.

About UNICEF: UNICEF works in more than 190 countries and territories to help children survive and thrive, from early childhood through adolescence. The world’s largest provider of vaccines for developing countries, UNICEF supports child health and nutrition, good water and sanitation, quality basic education for all boys and girls, and the protection of children from violence, exploitation, and AIDS. UNICEF is funded entirely by the voluntary contributions of individuals, businesses, foundations and governments.